Oscars 2006

[ZapRowsdower]

Side note, great tribute to the dearly departed in the industry. R.I.P. to all.

[ZapRowsdower]

Best Actress

Helen Mirren for The Queen

[ZapRowsdower]

Best Actor

Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland

[ZapRowsdower]

Best Director

MARTIN SCORSESE!!!!

[ZapRowsdower]

Best Picture

THE DEPARTED!!!

[ZapRowsdower]

Recap:

Best Motion Picture of the Year: The Departed

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Helen Mirren for The Queen

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls

Best Achievement in Directing: Martin Scorsese for The Departed

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen: Michael Arndt for Little Miss Sunshine

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: William Monahan for The Departed

Best Achievement in Cinematography: Guillermo Navarro for Pan's Labyrinth

Best Achievement in Editing: Thelma Scoonmaker for The Departed

Best Achievement in Art Direction: Pan's Labyrinth

Best Achievement in Costume Design: Marie Antoinette

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score: Gustavo Santoallalla for Babel

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song: Melissa Etheridge: "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth

Best Achievement in Makeup: Pan's Labyrinth

Best Achievement in Sound: Dreamgirls

Best Achievement in Sound Editing: Letters from Iwo Jima

Best Achievement in Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Happy Feet

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: The Lives of Others - Germany

Best Documentary, Features: An Inconvenient Truth

Best Documentary, Short Subjects: The Blood of Yingzhou District

Best Short Film, Animated: The Danish Poet

Best Short Film, Live Action: West Bank Story

[ZapRowsdower]

Reflection:

FUCK YES!

Need me to elaborate? Very well.

Martin Scorsese. He is one of the greatest film directors America can boast. Japan has Akira Kurosawa, Germany has Fritz Lang, France has Jean-Pierre Jeunet, we have Martin Scorsese. Can someone please explain to me how one of our greatest filmmakers, after making so many pivotal American films such as Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York and the Aviator could have gone this long without ever winning an Oscar?

Well tonight, my friends, if you were watching the Oscars with me, we have experienced HISTORY. That's right. I don't know how many times a man can lose after so many nominations, but when high time came along, Scorsese went home with the gold... presented by three other legends of filmmaking: Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and my hero Steven Spielberg.

For the most part, I agree with the winners. No surprises in the Best Actor/Actress category, and I'm not gonna complain about Helen Mirren's win, that old broad totally deserved it. I don't mind Forest Whitaker winning either, but I was hoping for a come-from-behind win from DiCaprio or Gosling. But you know, I'm sure the Academy is scared from steering away from the hype. The caught a lot of shit last year for giving Best Picture to Crash over Brokeback Mountain. They don't want to be labeled racists now, do they?

In the supporting category, Alan Arkin was genius. Still, I was hoping for a win for Eddie Murphy. I mean, seriously guys. This is about as good as his career is gonna get. I mean, he followed up with Norbit. NORBIT! The man is never gonna get nominated again. And I really thought his performance in Dreamgirls was Oscar-worthy.

It's in Cinematography that I think the Academy needs to get their fucking heads examined. What the fuck? Pan's Labyrinth? Don't get me wrong, Pan's Labyrinth was an excellent film, I was pulling for it in Art Direction, Make-up and Best Foreign Language, but Cinematography was an award that SHOULD have gone to Children of Men. This is serious. This is highway robbery on the same scale as Three 6 Mafia taking Best Song last year. Okay? Pan's Labyrinth had good, nominateable cinematography, but when it comes down to it, Emmanuel Lubezki did it better with Children of Men. I don't see how anyone can argue with that. Academy, get help.

But other than that, it was a great show. Ellen was awesome, Al Gore won Best Documentary, that's cool... Good song winning for Best Original song. No movie seemed to dominate. Pirates took best visual effects, that's cool. It was a good show, and I have very few complaints on it.

[frankenjohn]

I was 12 for 24 on my predictions.

I missed picture (I said LMS), supporting actor, (Murphy), song (Listen), animated (Cars), foreign (Pan's), etc.

I got the cinematography though, Zap.

[Phoenix]

I was 15/18 this year on predictions. I always bet with my family - lost out to my grandfather who had 16/18.

ANYWAY, the awards show itself was a snoozefest for me this year. Maybe because there were so few surprises for the winners. There were few highlights (I always like the movie clips) but overall it felt bland and longer than last year.

The biggest surprise though for me was that Dreamgirls did not win for best song. They were nominated for THREE! And Melissa Ethridge won? Give me a break. I'm just not a fan.

[ZapRowsdower]

I also went 12/24

Most of them were missed on the technical categories, and of course I was off on Supporting Actor (was pulling for Murphy).

[Pulpmariachi]

I don't even bother predicting.

I thought Ellen was all right and I did like Jack Black/Will Ferrel/John C. Riley's musical act. I think one of the best moments was when Ennio Morricone delivered his speech. Everyone had no idea what to do, it was pretty hilarious. I think they could have cut down on the movie clips, we don't need like 80 of them, but it was nice seeing Alan Arkin win. And Scorsese, finally. Though, he should really be one of those directors who everytime he's nominated everyone sez, "All right, whatever. Scorsese's got it again."

The fact that "Children of Men" didn't win Best Cinematography was a shame. I've seen some of the defenses for "Pan's Labyrinth" and they say that Lubezki only had innovative camera movies, but do you know how hard it is to keep something destaurated, bleak, and cold for an entire movie using natural light? Yeah, that's right. That was highway robbery right there and nothing in "Pan's Labyrinth" could compare to the sequences in "Children of Men." I suppose the Academy rules for pretty images over innovation (which doesn't explain why Robert Yeoman hasn't gotten on either).

But hooray for Scorsese. I read this one thing where the reviewer was disappointed that Scorsese's speech only had him thanking everyone. Well...what would he expect? For Scorsese to say, "Hey Academy fuckers! Finally!" Though when Spielberg, Coppola, and Lucas ("I haven't won an Oscar") came out you did get the feeling that Scorsese was taking it home.

Yeah, it was predicatble but I think I liked it better than last year. Save for one result, I was a lot happier with whom they chose.

[ZapRowsdower]

pulpmariachi said:

I don't even bother predicting.

I thought Ellen was all right and I did like Jack Black/Will Ferrel/John C. Riley's musical act. I think one of the best moments was when Ennio Morricone delivered his speech. Everyone had no idea what to do, it was pretty hilarious. I think they could have cut down on the movie clips, we don't need like 80 of them, but it was nice seeing Alan Arkin win. And Scorsese, finally. Though, he should really be one of those directors who everytime he's nominated everyone sez, "All right, whatever. Scorsese's got it again."

The fact that "Children of Men" didn't win Best Cinematography was a shame. I've seen some of the defenses for "Pan's Labyrinth" and they say that Lubezki only had innovative camera movies, but do you know how hard it is to keep something destaurated, bleak, and cold for an entire movie using natural light? Yeah, that's right. That was highway robbery right there and nothing in "Pan's Labyrinth" could compare to the sequences in "Children of Men." I suppose the Academy rules for pretty images over innovation (which doesn't explain why Robert Yeoman hasn't gotten on either).

But hooray for Scorsese. I read this one thing where the reviewer was disappointed that Scorsese's speech only had him thanking everyone. Well...what would he expect? For Scorsese to say, "Hey Academy fuckers! Finally!" Though when Spielberg, Coppola, and Lucas ("I haven't won an Oscar") came out you did get the feeling that Scorsese was taking it home.

Yeah, it was predicatble but I think I liked it better than last year. Save for one result, I was a lot happier with whom they chose.

Really, Pulp? I remember last year you were dissatisfied with the results.

[Pulpmariachi]

Yeah....

I meant, I was happier with the people they chose for the most part this year as opposed to last year.

Just some clearification.

[ZapRowsdower]

Oh, right. My bad, must've misread it.

[Phoenix]

Despite a show that dragged on past midnight Eastern time, ratings for the 2007 Oscars improved a little over last year's telecast.

An averaged of 39.9 million people watched the 79th annual Academy Awards on ABC Sunday night. That's an improvement of 1 million viewers over last year's Oscar telecast, which like this year lacked a big hit film that was up for a slew of awards.

"The Departed," the biggest box-office draw among the five best picture nominees, took home the most awards (four), including honors for best picture and best director Martin Scorsese, his first Oscar after five previous nominations in his career.

Ellen DeGeneres hosted the show, which ran about 3 hours and 50 minutes -- the longest Oscarcast since the 2002 show, which stretched over 4 hours. Despite the ratings bump over last season, it still fell a couple million viewers short of the 2004 and '05 Academy Awards shows.

ABC is also trumpeting improved ratings among younger viewers. The benchmark adults 18-49 rating for this year's show was 14.0, up just a tenth of a point from last year's 13.9. In the smaller group of adults 18-34, though, the awards improved from 12.0 in 2006 to 12.9 Sunday, the best in that demographic since 2002. Ratings in all the adult-women demos were up too.

The 39.9 million viewer average makes the Oscars the most-watched entertainment broadcast of this season. The season premiere of "American Idol," at 37.4 million, was the previous leader.

ABC says about 74.8 million people watched at least six minutes of the broadcast. Cut that down to one minute, and the number rises to 87 million.